Comments

On pp. 282-283 of Red Mars, the author has character John Boone drive a rover from Bradbury Point to Acheron, some 5000 kilometers to the west. From the map of Mars at the front of the novel, we see that Acheron is at the far left, and Bradbury point is well right of center. But since the map shows the entire planet -- i.e., all 360 degrees of Mars -- that would mean it would actually be a shorter distance to drive if Boone went east to Acheron rather than west. Can anyone explain this apparent discrepancy?

just by chance -- a new book on the future of New York City comes out just before Kim's in October, 2016, called Ecotopia 2121. It's filled with 100 full-color pics of what 100 Green cities of the future will possibly look like (if they survive the eco-catastrophes of today and go on to become super ecofriendly, that is).

Brilliant as usual, but possibly overly pessimistic? Human interstellar travel seems highly unlikely given our self destructive instincts but a world ship is not technically impossible as KSR shows us. The idea that alien worlds with life would kill life from elsewhere is interesting. I think it's more likely that since evolution would have proceeded separately we wouldn't make a good host for alien prion like diseases or other single celled organisms and viruses. Getting to a habitable planet will be the hard part. Unlikely as it seems since we haven't even managed to get back to the moon in the last 40 years I think humans will eventually achieve the goal if we get through the next 100 years or so.

However "ligjht" a treatment R's article in Scientific American, "What Will It Take for Humans to Colonize the Milky Way?" may be, I am distressed that he isn't writing instead on what it will take for us earthlings to survive on this rapidly-warming planet beyone the end of this century. Similarly for most of the other larg-ish species with whom we share the Earth. The exponential release of methane in the arctic and the exponential rise in temperatures, especially in the Arctic, have collaborated to produce run-away warming-- as we have seen in the past (nearly-) three years of unprecedented record global temperature averages. It is happening NOW. Does anyone else think of the flashback scenes in David Bowie's film, "The Man Who Fell To Earth"-- a man in search of a still-habitable planet, as his own has been cooked? Could Robinson's colonizers survive a multi-generational voyage on an interstellar vessel-- seems not worth a thought as we watch our own "spaceship Earth" crashing, ecologically (For those who have not been following the problem of Artctic methane releases, google (1) methane from the melting tundra, (2) the dissociation of methane hydrates underwater- particuylarly on the Siberian shelf, and (3)b, burps" or plumes of pure methane released beneath the seas as the thinning hydrates are no longer strong enough to continue capping off seams of this gas beneath the comtinental shelf. And/or watch a few of the youtube talks by Prof. Guy McPherson on the subject.)

I wonder what KSR thinks about these private corporations readying to go into space (like Elon Musk's Space X, etc.). Sorry, I haven't had time to read all the comments to see if this has already been discussed. My qualm is, will there be any utopians on board as in the Mars Trilogy? I somwhow doubt it!

My name is Patrick Haney, and I want to send a letter to Kim Stanley Robinson for a school English project about his short story "the Lucky Strike". Does anyone have his contact information (even email), or is there anyway I can get to it?

My name is Patrick Haney, and I want to send a letter to Kim Stanley Robinson for a school English project about his short story "the Lucky Strike". Does anyone have his contact information (even email), or is there anyway I can get to it? If you've already seen this comment, sorry about that: it didn't show up so I wrote a new one.

Humans need not migrate themselves to colonize the Milky Way. The could migrate life, in the fom of microbes, engineered to survive in an environment. What if we could place microbes on Venus that can survive its temperature, and reproduce ? And then let nature take over, and evolve these bacteria into something more complex, perhaps altering the atmosphere and creating animal life in the process ? Im not saying that "building" such microbes will be easy, but I certainly believe it to be easier and more feasible than moving ourselves into the universe using spaceship arcs.

I think microbes is the correct way to continue. The reason it is not popular, is because it will take about one billion years for the Venus microbe to evolve into intelligent life, and that is the best case scenario. And none of us is ready to wait that long!

So perhaps it is our vanity that prohibits us from colonizing space ? We want immediate results so that the people involved in the program get the credit while they are alive. I do not think that interstellar travel will work at such small scales.

Thank you for your time to read this, I would be interested in a response at dim DOT tripakis At gmail dot com.

Does anyone know of a list of the unique vocabulary words that KSR has invented & used in NY 20140? (e.g., bacino, graphene, skyvillage) I'd love to have a list of those words with definitions. It would help me understand a little better what I am reading.

Currently I am enjoying reading "Blue Mars" in Japanese. Now I saw two characters' name which is Priska and Irishika. I am wondering if these two names show the different person. I think they are Swiss persons who is familiar with law and consitition.

On page 378, "a) the citizen" gives an inspiring overview of the non-carbon-based energy technologies, some already in existence, some imagined. I think this would be a wonderful excerpt to put online and spread it everywhere.I wonder if Mr. Robinson would think this a good idea? Just a thought, I'm not doing it!!!

recently I was in a conference from AIAA (53 confreence Atlanta 10-12 July). in that conference, in some speech some one talk above the possibility to using the sand of Phobos and Deimos for aerobraking on Mars.

I am not an engineer then I don’t know if the idea works or is just poppycock. But if works, that means that Phobos and Deimos could